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Wiki Style Guide
The purpose of the style guide is to lay out a set of standards to follow when editing the wiki. Some of these styles aren't necessarily any better or worse than their alternatives, but if everyone follows the same standards, it keeps the wiki consistent, and easier to read and edit. These are the standards we have decided on. Please follow this style guide at all times when creating wiki content. If you don't, someone else will have to come along and spend time correcting what you wrote, and if you keep breaking the style guide badly the admins may have to resort to harsher measures. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask an admin or moderator. Text All articles are to be written in English (excepting text in other languages like Sindarin and Quenya). The correct form of English to used on the wiki is British English, as decided here. When writing text for an article, always use correct spelling and grammar. Keep in mind that this includes using British terminology. For example, in American culture, the street-level floor of a building is called the "first floor", whereas in British culture, it is called the "ground floor", and the next level up is called the "first floor." Therefore, the second floor of a building in British English is actually the third floor of a building in American English, and so forth. This includes article titles, main text, picture captions, template elements, and so on. It doesn't apply to comments and forum discussions. It also doesn't apply to picture names and other file names, as these are not part of the article. The names of races (e.g. Elves, Men, Orcs) are to be capitalised. This is in keeping with the style used in the LOTR books, and in the mod. (Note that the capitalised race name 'Men' is a synonym for 'humans'. The word 'men' meaning male humans specifically does not need to be capitalised.) Hyphenated words such as Half-troll and Middle-earth, if they need to be capitalised, generally don't have the second part of the word capitalised. Pay attention to certain terms that have accents, such as Dúnedain, Lothlórien, and Mûmakil. For everything, if in doubt, look at how the mod or Tolkien's books formats it. Health Points and Hunger Points are to be written as points, not "Hearts" or "Hunger Sticks". A health point is one half of a "Heart" and a hunger point is one half of a "Hunger Stick". Or use the template to have a bar design like this: , which takes type and points as parameter and displays both, the points and the symbols. For more info see here. In info-boxes just use the number: Type restores = 4 or health = 10 to get this or . Links Typically, the first occurrence of a term in an article should be the one that is linked. Any subsequent occurrences of that term in the same article need not be linked. Also, please do not link to user profile pages in a purely informative article. It is unnecessary and, in general, not purely informative. For links to a special update, you can simply type , which includes something like this: , in info-boxes just use the number (added in = 3.2). For links to vanilla items, you can simply type , which includes an external link to the named page, something like this: . Pluralisation Here is a reference list for commonly misspelled plural words. Useful Tips *Always hit 'Preview' before publishing. *Make sure to categorize new pages you create. *Have too many photos? Try organizing them in galleries. *"Shirriff" is the correct spelling for the Hobbit police. For Articles Information in articles should be factual and objective (i.e. not subject to opinion). Don't add something to an article unless you believe it to be factually accurate. For example, you should not edit the Lindon Elf article to say that "they are the best hired units in the Mod", because 'best' is a matter of opinion. The only exception for this are gameplay pages, which deal with a certain style of playing the game, or offer some helpful tips. These contain gathered experiences with playing the modded game and are therefore more or less subjective, looking onto gameplay in a certain angle of view. Also, do not add speculation in articles, like 'X will probably be added soon...' or 'there is no X yet but in the future there may be...'. Do not write about a feature being planned to be added unless Mevans has confirmed it personally. And do not write that a feature is coming in the next update unless, again, Mevans has confirmed it. 'Sections' Each page here must have sections based on properties of the item/block/NPC/biome/etc. Categories are excluded from this. Please don't put too much details into the pages, that can be found following a link. Too much details make pages hard to read, and as the mod is still in development, leads to inconsistent information, if duplicate information is not changed at each occurence. Biomes Biome pages must have the following sections: *'Sub-biomes' - Which smaller biomes can be found in this biome (such as Eriador Woodlands for Eriador). Within each sub-biome, a description of that biome is to be included. *'Structures' - Which structures can be found here. If there are any sub-biomes, it must be specified which structure can be found in which sub-biome. *'Mobs' - Which mobs or NPCs can spawn here (naturally or in structures). *'Mining' - Only required if the biome has any ores or other anomalies that can't befound in other biomes such as mithril for the Misty Mountains, the special Mordor underground or the amount of ores in the Red Mountains. *'Vegetation' - Which plants and how many trees of what type grow here. The frequence of the trees and plants should also be included. Just provide a short description and a link in each structure/mob/vegetation section, not the details itself. E.g. structure tower has a captain, some loot, etc. Do not describe the captain, the tower or the loot in detail, this might change in further updates and belongs only on the captain's / the tower's page. As sub-biomes have no extra page, this sections have to be more detailed. NPCs and Mobs Pages on mobs or NPCs must have the following sections: *'Spawning' - List of biomes in which they spawn *'Behavior' - how they act in combat (peaceful? aggressive?) or any other special behavior. *'Drops' - with the amount and rarity *'Trading/Hiring' - (only for traders/commanders) and taming for mounts or pets. Blocks Blocks must have sections on availibility (where it is found, etc.) and crafting/usage. Do provide crafting recipes, how the block can be made, but not the recipes, what items can be crafted from them, if they have an extra page. Just provide links, because changed recipes cause inconsistent information, if used on several pages. 'Items' Must have sections on crafting, obtaining, damage (if it is a weapon), and protection (if it is armour). If items are used to craft something else, just provide links, not the recipe itself, as they are due to changes, as mentioned in the block section above. 'Structures' Structures must have sections on locations, interior (must be very detailed), mobs, and loot. 'Crafting tables' Crafting tables need a list of every single item crafted on the table in addition to the normal block information. Only things crafted on that table should be included. That means that poisoned daggers do not belong there. Crafting grids are to be used, as usual. The table containing this information must start collapsed. Ensure mobile compatibility As stated by Wikia, almost 50% of the views on an average wiki are made not by people using a computer, but instead portable electronic device (cell phone, tablet, etc.). When making a page with complex coding, or a complex template, make sure to use the "Mobile Preview" button before hitting "Publish". The page doesn't have to look perfect in Mobile mode, but it should at least be readable. FYI: It is possible to edit pages on a mobile device. Infoboxes Every page must have an infobox template if one is avaiable. There are infoboxes for nearly every kind of page. If you don't know some things from the infobox, research it or write "Unknown". The image in a page's infobox should be an icon if applicable (such as for tools and blocks); a picture of the mob with no background (for mobs); or a landscape of the biome (for biomes). Other images (such as crafting recipes etc.) should be within the article itself. 'Tables' All tables on the wiki must follow the same format. Do NOT copy tables out of Word documents. To format a table to comply to our wiki's standards, use the following coding: 'Crafting Grids' Use the icon guidelines from below. Both links and display text should be correct. You can use the -link parameter if the link is different than the display text. If an image has a corresponding page on the wiki, such as Mordor Brick, the image should be named the same as the page and the image parameter can be removed to save space. Make sure that there are not too many newlines on either side of the template. To save space and for improved readability, put names, links and images that belong logically together on a single line. E.g. There are also several shortcuts that you can use to save space, such as Input, Output, and Row parameters. For full documentaion visit this page. 'Categories and Navigation Templates' Make sure, to select correct categories and templates for a page. If you are not sure, what might be accurate, check the categories/templates used on similar pages and copy/adapt them to the page you are working on. This is important for accurate , that can provide an excellent overview for a certain topic. If you find a page listed on a category page, that it does not belong to, remove the wrong category from the page, if you miss one, add it to the missing page. E.g. An orc slaver is a captain where you can hire farmhands, not a farmhand itself. Try to avoid to copy too much information from one page to another. If something holds for all pages of a category, it belongs rather on the category page, than on every single page of that category. If you add a new page, also add a link to the corresponding navigation templates and add also a call for that template to your new page. Links that have a prefix for the correct faction (eg. Gondorian Archer) must have the prefix removed to save space. If you aren't sure how to do it yourself, ask an admin or a moderator. E.g. You add a new food, that is only used by a certain faction. A link to that page has to be added to the food template and to the faction's template. Both categories and should be included at the end of the new page. Pictures Follow these guidelines when adding pictures, with the exception of pictures for individuals' user pages. Pictures not adhering to these policies will be removed and the user warned. These guidelines follow the general principle of "showcase the normal appearance of the mod at its best." Formal Criteria *'Searching:' Before uploading a picture, check if it's not already there. Go to the search bar, enter a word and hit the arrow. On the select "Photos and Videos". It's quite annoying to remove loads of identical pictures uploaded under slightly different filenames. *'Description:' When uploading a picture, add a short description to it. This is important to find pictures. A picture called "MyNiceNearHaradPicture-B24.png" will never be found, unless you add "Near Harad, Landscape, Nice, B24, Update 24" etc. to the descripton, allowing all those keywords to be used. *'Version:' Please add the version of the Mod, you're running, to the description of your pictures. For example, if you're running Beta 24 and you're taking a picture of the Misties, call it "Misty Mountains", with a description as B24. If the filename already exists, check, if it shows similar but outdated contents. If so, re-upload your picture as a new version of it, with B24 as the file changes. Select file history, and click on the link below it to re-upload a file. Please check the pages, where the , because image captions might have to be changed as well. *'Naming:' Name pictures so that they are relevant to the subject and are easy to find (e.g. "EregionSunset.png"). Do not leave them in the default date format. Also, make sure the name is not overriding an existing filename, as this means the old picture will be removed - the uploader will warn you if this is happening. Do not name pictures with the version of the mod they were taken in. That should be put into the file description. *'Naming icons:' Icons for crafting grids should be named exactly as the corresponding wiki page (capitals and blanks inculded). No numbers or anything. This makes them easier to find. Also, they should be .png format, as the crafting grids use .png as default. This way, crafting recipes can be much smaller, as image names do not have to be specified. Name the 16px images as they are in the mod files, but when it comes to the large handheld sprites, add the resolution next to the filename (e.g. SwordGondor32px.png). *'Naming mobs, blocks and structures:' These should be named exactly as they are in the creative inventory, with no spacing (e.g. Easterling.png, GondorWatchfort.png, GuldurilOre.png). *'Naming armour infobox images:' These should be named alike to their page name, with no spaces. Isometric views have the name followed by "_iso". *'New CSS:' added to the wiki allows block and item images to be zoomed to any size without interpolation, removing the need for large scaled images. Please upload the original icons from the mod resources and use the wiki to zoom images. Files with 150 or 100 can be replaced and renamed, or deleted. *'Regarding gifs:' Gifs are to be used for variants of a feature of the mod that are present in the creative inventory, such as pouch size (not colour), Dalish crackers, and armour variants. Gifs are not to be used for variations that are not present in the creative inventory such as mob/NPC skins or dyed armour/clothing. Contents *'No texture packs:' Texture packs do not show the normal appearance of the mod, and can be confusing and irritating. Revert to the default textures before taking screenshots for the wiki. *'No shaders or graphical mods:' These also do not show the mod's normal appearance. *'FOV set to normal (70):' Again, high FOV doesn't show how the mod normally looks. It can induce dizziness, headaches, and in extreme cases can make people nauseous. *'Fancy graphics, smooth lighting, render distance of 8 or more:' Minecraft video settings must be set to these levels for best-quality screenshots (If your computer can handle a render distance of 16 chunks, please use this for taking screenshots). Wait for the background chunks to be rendered, before taking the photo. *'Mipmap Levels and Anisotropic Filtering set to max': These must be set to the maximum for best-quality screenshots. Otherwise, certain blocks can look very ugly, especially grass, flowers, and leaves. *'No player builds in the background: ' We're sure your builds are cool, but wiki articles are not the place for them. *'F1:' You should be in F1 mode (hides inventory, alignment bar, lotr compass, etc.) while taking a screenshot unless it involves inventory or GUI. *'NPCs and other Mobs:' Images showing those used in infoboxes should show close-ups (i.e. filling at least half of the screen) as otherwise they appear too small in the infobox. Images must be cropped. A guide on how to do this can be found here. *'GUI:' Pictures, showing graphical user interfaces (GUIs) or dispayed messages, should be cropped to show only the GUI, not the background as well. That way, they are easier to read or use up fewer space on the page. *'Isometric block database:' Individual block images should be to the standard found in SamwiseFilmore's dropbox folder of block renders. It is a comprehensive collection, so any needed blocks should be available for download here. Personal profile pages Registered users can write what they please on their personal profile page, so long as it's not vulgarity -- they need not necessarily comply with the guidelines on this page. However, you should never edit another user's personal profile page unless they agree to it or to correct mere typos or links. If you are an admin, you may choose to protect your profile page, so only other admins can edit it. If your page gets vandalized, notify an administrator, and tell them how long you want the offender to be banned. They will do as you ask. Another thing that may not be revealed on personal profile pages, or any other wiki page for that matter, is specific information related to Easter eggs such as the command for Jazz Elves or the coordinates of Shrek's House or Meneltarma. End Note If you are ever unsure about how to format a page for the wiki, you can always go to look at similar pages and copy their format. If all else fails, or if you are looking for instructions on using advanced editing tools, the admins of this wiki are always there to help. Thank you for reading, and happy editing! Category:Browse Category:Guides Category:Rules Category:Help